The Yaesu FT-8800R has front panel access to WIRES - Wide-Coverage Internet Repeater Enhancement System. Since WIRES was announced at the 2002 Dayton Hamvention, the system has evolved into a much more versatile system, known as WIRES™-II.

WIRES™-II is a technique of using Internet Voice Networking technology to link two repeaters or home stations, across a county or across a continent, thus allowing users with a hand-held or mobile transceiver to communicate over long distances. Nonproprietary DTMF signalling is used to establish the Internet link. WIRES™-II has several unique features and operating modes that set it apart from other linking systems already in the marketplace:

(1) The HRI-100 Interface, which is the electronic part of a WIRES™ node, connects to a personal computer (using Windows® 98SE or later OS), and that computer may connect either to a high-speed (DSL/ISDN/T1, etc.) or a regular dial-up (56 kbps) Internet connection. The HRI-100 comes with AP01 Software on CD, data cable and audio cables (requires 12 VDC @ 1 amp). Click here to view wiring.

(2) The SRG (Sister Repeater Group) operating mode allows paging of any WIRES™ node (repeater or base station) within a pre-arranged closed group, using a single DTMF digit for access. Depending on how you
configure your node, you may send this DTMF digit once, at the beginning of the initial linked transmission, or you may elect to require the sending of the DTMF digit at the beginning of each linked transmission (thus allowing you to make on-the-fly switch to a local transmission, if you like).

(3) The FRG (Friends' Repeater Group) operating mode involves a worldwide assortment of repeaters and base stations that have configured their nodes to get calls from any other WIRES™ node. Similar in concept to IRLP, the FRG mode has the additional capability of Group Calling of up to ten other nodes, using a single DTMF digit, a feature that might be of tremendous benefit to emergency groups. To make a regular FRG call, you press [#] then five more DTMF digits, depending on the I.D. number of the node you are calling.

(4) Plug-and-play interconnections to FT-8800R allow a WIRES™-II node to be created in a matter of minutes. Yaesu has interconnection instructions for a number of popular repeater controllers.